Stockton on Tees has suffered a declining Town Centre for many years. The Guardian has an interesting article on the ideas emerging to redevelop the Town Centre.
The Stockton proposals are a reminder that the Guildford Town Centre Master Plan might usefully consider the riverside and what opportunities there are for green space.
As the article on Stockton highlights
'While some towns scramble to convert empty department stores into flats, or fill vacant shops with community pop-ups and urban farms, Stockton Council has come up with an altogether bolder proposition for the post-retail age. It plans to demolish half the high street and replace it with a park.
“The government asked for ‘transformational’ proposals for our high streets,” says councillor Nigel Cooke, cabinet member for regeneration. “If this is not transformational, I don’t know what is.” If the plans go ahead, the project will see an ailing shopping arcade ripped up and replaced with a riverside park three times the size of Trafalgar Square, providing grandstand views across a bucolic scene of rowing, sailing and waterside promenading along the Tees.'
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